A California judge has fined an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi over six thousand dollars for reporting the vandalism of his synagogue to the police.

“This is an outrageous decision that penalizes a Rabbi for simply reporting a crime that he witnessed,” said Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel to First Liberty. “The Rabbi made a good faith report to police about a crime he saw taking place on his property. This decision empowers vandals to continue to interfere with sacred religious practices without fear of accountability.”

First Liberty attorneys plan to appeal Tuesday’s decision.

In October of 2016, a band of activists stormed onto the Hebrew Discovery Center synagogue, after the synagogue performed an ancient religious ceremony known as Kaparos, which involvs the kosher and humane killing of chickens. The vandals trespassed, stole electronics, and caused thousands of dollars in damage to the property. The Rabbi witnessed the vandalism, catching some of the disturbance on video, and reported the incident to the police. One person in the group was charged with vandalism, theft, and trespass. The case was eventually dismissed, because prosecutors did not have enough evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Afterward, the activist brought a case against the Rabbi for reporting her to the police and a California judge has just awarded her over $6,000.

Cases based on reporting crimes to the police are generally disfavored under California law, because the state wants to encourage those who are the victims of crimes to freely communicate with law enforcement.

21 COMMENTS

Yup. The State that has been overrun by WHITE democrats like Gavin Newsom, Nanci Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Eric Garcetti, Adam Schiff, etc…
Maxine Waters, Kamala Harris from the other Democrat’s as well. Anti Semitism is new IN with the Democrat party, the party of hate.

This headline is totally misleading!!
He apparently was NOT fined. He was required to pay damages for having accused a person of committing a crime without enough proof.
The “fine” was not for reporting a crime!
This headline is nothing more than trying to sell the news with sensationalism.

The YWN headline is wrong. No one was “fined”. A fine is a monetary penalty, payable to the government, imposed when when a defendant breaks a law. The $6,000 payable by the rabbi appears to be a civil penalty payable to the woman he reported to the police. The article does not report any basis for the civil penalty. If there is no such basis, then, yes, the civil award is outrageous.

I can’t find the court case, but the “endchickensaskaporos” (20 October 2016) seems to have this incident persented as follows:

> Needless to say, this created conflict. When we showed up on Sunday afternoon for the first day of Kapparot for HDC, we were greeted by over fifteen police officers and two private security guards, and the site was roped off from the community. Rabbi Louie and his supporters were defiant in every way, including shoving protestors and even allegedly spitting on one activist. One activist, Desiree Mehrez, was arrested for trespassing when she entered into the tented area. VIDEO OF THE INCIDENT SHOWS A JUBILANT RABBI LOUIE SINGING “AM YISRAEL CHAI” AS SHE IS BEING HAULED AWAY BY LAPD, QUITE DISTURBING : After two days of overwhelming LAPD presence, after LAPD left, some frustrated activists apparently damaged HDC’s tented off area in the alleyway. While she tells us that she was not involved in damaging property, one leader, Lola Kay, was picking up materials in the back alley after the damage had been committed and Rabbi Louie found her there and called upon LAPD to arrest her. After over 24 hours in Van Nuys jail, her bail was reduced from $20,000 to $10,000, and activists pooled resources to purchase a bail bond to get her out.

So aside from there being more than one person arrested, seems only one person filed a lawsuit, and it seems it was the latter case. And clearly even they themselves admit that at least some of the protesters committed vandalism, but deny that it was the person (“leader”) who was caught on-site.